Introduction

Planetside 2 has many different resources that players need to manage, which makes it confusing for new players and likely widens the gap between them and veterans. However all the resources we have can be broken down into two categories; those that are used for character progression unlocks and those that acquire assets on the battlefield. To clarify, let me list all the manageable resources we have:

Character progression resources:

• Certs (1 earned for every 250 experience, which can then be spent unlocking various things)

• ISO-4 (earned through alerts or essentially brought with certs for 750 certs for 225 ISO-4 via recycling implants from packs)

• ASP (earned after reaching set battle ranks)

• A7 (earned by all players via alerts or downloaded from exposed terminals, can be spent on rare weapons and other unlocks)

• Merit (earned by outfit members by capturing and defending bases and can be spent on various personal unlocks)

Battlefield resources:

• Nanites (for obtaining air and ground vehicles, explosives and MAXs)

• Cortium (for construction system assets)

• War Asset Resources:

  • Auraxium (green, used for low impact quick use assets)

  • Synthium (blue used for mid impact occasional use assets)

  • Polystellerite (purple, used for high impact rare use assets)

There is also Daybreak Cash which is spent on unlocking new weapons, and there is now yet another resource with the introduction of the mission and campaign system.

The various battlefield resources give the devs the ability to tweak things on a system by system level, making say construction more accessible by increasing cortium gain, while not affecting how quickly outfits can pull Bastions. It also gives different sized outfits different targets as large outfits will want to capture the Polystellerite territories more than the smaller ones generally. Originally we had separate territories granting infantry, armour and air resources, which allowed the devs to say increase resources for aircraft which allowed more aircraft to be pulled without making it easier to pull MAXs, which cannot be achieved in that way with current nanites (although, just increasing MAX nanite cost or decreasing aircraft nanite cost would do the job).

However there is significant overlap between the battlefield resources with the construction system already blurring the lines as vehicles can be pulled with cortium (and for that matter, certs) instead of the usual nanites and orbital strikes being purchased with war assets or cortium.  Having similar things accessed with different resources is confusing and makes it too easy to totally ignore elements of the game. 

Proposal

What I propose is that almost all the manageable character resources are merged together (see this link for details), and all the battlefield resources are merged. War Assets would be reworked in such a way as to reward squad and platoon leaders as well as those in outfits and tie into construction, so the two systems are not at odds with one another. If the system were unified then construction could be brought into regular gameplay more than currently, where it interacts with the core game primarily through Router placements and Orbital Strikes. 

All merging would happen in phases to iron out any problems that crop up.

Battlefield Resources

All battlefield resources would merge into nanites:

All current vehicles, infantry equipment, MAXs, construction options and war assets would be purchased by differing amounts of nanites. Access would depend on the role of the player and the terminal they are accessing at the time.

Individuals would see little immediate change as they would still have a personal caps at 750 nanites, around which we would balance the rest of the resource costs.

Construction players would see cortium change to nanites and would, just like now, have to mine and deposit nanites into silos they construct. These nanites could then purchase construction items and pulling vehicles from their constructed terminals. However individuals would be able to contribute their own nanites to the construction effort with a dedicated tool. This will allow groups to quickly get bases set up as the frontline shifts back and forth without having to collect huge amounts of cortium/nanites. 

War Assets would also be merged into nanites. Some territories would grant more resources than others, such as three point territories and the three main facility types. However the big change would be that squad and platoon leaders, rather than just outfits, would earn the ability to use war assets. In addition to the individuals nanite amount leaders would have an increased pool, which fills only when their squad works together (via squad support experience) to take and defend territory. Platoon leaders would earn extra when their squad leads earn their extra nanites.

Squad leaders would earn enough nanites to deploy generic assets (Facility modules and ANVILs, with squad Steel Rain added) while platoon leaders would also earn enough to deploy reserved assets (Colossus, Citadel Skyshield, Orbital Strike and a new entire platoon Steel Rain). Platoon leaders could also earn enough to pull Bastions. This is in addition to outfits earning resources for capturing bases, as this encourages outfit membership and directly rewards players for running these organisations which are vital tools for player retention. These resources could be spent to bank up resources as now, and then deployed when that individual is in a leadership role of a fireteam, squad or platoon (thereby limiting OS spam). Note that a fire team leaders would also earn extra nanites, allowing them to pull more vehicles and, of the War Assets, Heavy ANVILs.

See below for preliminary nanite amounts for some examples:

2. Merging of Construction and War Assets

There is a considerable overlap between construction, war assets and nanites. To clarify I will break down the core issues and some proposed solutions:

• Orbital Strikes exist both as a construction asset which has to be charged and then targeted with a device and separately as a war asset which can be fired from the map directly. These would be merged so that the construction OS targeting device is required to acquire a target with the war asset OS also. To give more importance to the OS uplink construction the war asset version could also only be used within the construction radius. 

• Flails and Glaives would also be fired in the same way for session leaders, and would also be added to the war asset pool.

• Construction vehicle pads would use the individuals nanite amount and then top up if needed from the nanite stock pile in the construction silo.

• The Colossus would be able to be built with nanites by construction players, making it available to all and not only those in outfits.

• Router spires and the routers they provide can change a battle inside a territory immensely, however do spoil intended battle flow through a facility. What I suggest is that Router spires give squad leads the option to deploy their beacon instead as a router by using an alternative fire mode, with no need of picking it up from a construction base. This will however only be an option if there is a routing spire in that territory or an adjacent territory. Routers would however only provide spawns for that squad, as beacons do currently.

Impact

These changes would simplify the system to be consistent and also give players more options in the field.